Fla. Supreme Court to Hear 2nd Irvin Appeal

    NEWS FROM _ 7 e 

| NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE 
aa ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE 

20 WES NEW YORK 18, N. Y * LOngacre 3-6890 

V ILKIN if ENRY LEE MOON 
f L tor of Pub ti 

FOR RELEASE: January 23, 1953 

FLA. SUPREME COURT TO 
HEAR 2nd IRVIN APPEAL January 23, 1953 

TALLAHASSEE, Fla,, Jan, 23. -- The notorious Groveland case will 

again move into the headlines here next Tuesday morning (Jan. 27) as 

attorneys for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored 

People appear before the Supreme Court of Florida to present arguments 

on the appeal from the second conviction of Walter Irvin, surviving 

defendent. Attorneys Alex Akerman of Orlando and Thurgood Marshall 

of New York, NAACP special counsel, are representing Irvin, 

Irvin's first conviction and death sentence in the widely-publi- 

cized "rape" case, together with the conviction and death sentence of 

Samuel Shepherd, were reversed by the United States Supreme Court in 

April, 1951, At that time, Justice Robert H. Jackson issued his now 

famous concurring opinion, which stated that the events surrounding 

the first trial did not "meet any civilized conception of due process 

of law." 

In November, 1951, on the eve of the re-trial ordered by the high 

court for Shepherd and Irvin, Sheriff Willis McCall shot both of the 

defendants on a lonely country road as he was transporting them from 

the state penitentiary for the new trial, Shepherd was killed and 

Irvin seriously wounded, The sheriff, who claimed "self-defense," was 

cleared by a coroner's jury, 

In a second trial in Ocala early in 1952, Irvin was again found 

guilty and sentenced to death. The present appeal asks reversal of 

this conviction and sentence, 

Charles Greenlee, given life imprisonment at the time of the first 

trial in 1949, when he was sixteen years of age, did not appeal and is 

in the state penitentiary. A fourth Negro, Ernest Thomas, was killed 

by a sheriff's posse before he was ever brought to trial, 



NAACP GAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUR, INC. 
107 Wet rtreet — che 

Thurgood Marshall, Director and Counsel 

FOR RELEASE: January 8, 1953 

PRINCE HALL MASONS GIVE $18,000 
TO NAACP TEGAL DEFENSE FUND 

NEW YORK, Jan. 8.-- With the presentation this week of a $5,000 

check, the Prince Hall Masons brought to a total of nearly $16,000 their 

1952 contributions to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in 

fulfilment of a $20,000 annual pledge made to Thurgood Marshall, fund 

director, by the grand masters of the fraternal order at a meeting in 

Denver in 1951, 

The presentation was made here on January 5 by John Wesley Dobbs, 

grand master of the Prince Hall Masons of Georgia. This sum, along 

with other contributions from the order, sustains the Prince Hall Masons! 

Legal Research Department (NAACP). This special fund is used to pay the 

salaries and other expenses of two lawyers assigned to research projects 

in connection with such issues as public school segregation cases, 

In making the presentation, Mr. Dobbs gave assurance that the Masons 

in his jurisdiction will make a contribution for 1953 in excess of the 

$5,000 donated to the project for 1952. He also promised to use his in- 

fluence to get the Masons of other states to match the generosity of the 

Georgia lodges. 

"This contribution from the Georgia Masons and those from the other 

jurisdictions of the order," Mr, Marshall said in accepting the gift, "is 

in keeping with the militant tradition established by the founder of the 

order, Prince Hall, who in his day enjoyed a wide reputation as a cou- 

rageous and uncompromising champion of freedom and equality. There could 

be no more fitting a memorial to the ideals of Prince Hall than this 

special fund to aid us in the fight to eliminate racial discrimination 

and segregation." 

Other contributions to this fund have been received as follows: 

Waite H. Madison, Grand Master of Missouri, $1,000; Prince Riley, G.M., 

South Carolina $500; Dr. William D. Washington, G.M., Massachusetts, 

$430; Fred W, Hickman, G.M., Wisconsin, $250; Amos T. Hall, G.M., 

Oklahoma, $500; John G. Lewis, G.M., Louisiana, $4,675.60; William 0. 

Greene, G.M,, Michigan, $100; Willard W. Allen, G.M., Maryland, $100; 

P.G, Porter, G.M., Kansas, $300; James C. Gilliam, G.M., Mississippi, 
$1,000; L.L. Lockhart, G.M., Texas, $500; Ashby B. Carter, G.M 
Illinois, $1,000; Starling J. Hopkins, G.M., California, $500; Willard 
Allen, Supreme Commander, United Supreme Council, $1,000; Council of 
ri aaa Dallas, $100; and Order of the Eastern Star, Atlanta, 
200.